In late September 2021, Milan – one of the world’s fashion capitals – will host two major international exhibitions: MICAM Milano and SIMAC Tanning Tech. The events will take place one right after another.

MICAM 2021 will be held Sept. 19 to 21 at Rho Fiera Milano exhibition ground.

“MICAM Milano, the leading international footwear trade fair, is the go-to event for exhibitors and buyers from all over the world,” notes the event’s official site. Traditionally, the fall showcase of MICAM is devoted to spring and summer seasons of the coming (2022) year.

Literally the next day after MICAM, the exhibition of Simac 2021 will open at Rho Fiera. This event is footwear-themed as well, but Simac focuses on machines and technologies for footwear, leather goods and the tanning industry – rather than just the fashion wardrobe. Simac traditionally welcomes the most important manufacturers of machines for footwear manufacturing, leather goods and tanneries; manufacturers of accessories and components; manufacturers of chemical products; prototyping systems; lab machinery and equipment; consumables; automation; waste treatment systems and equipment; moulds and die cutters; management and production cycle vendors; logistics; finished-product testing; conveyor systems; etc. The most recent additions to the exposition are robotic complexes and automation systems of Industry 4.0.

Simac Tanning Tech 2021 will be held Sept. 22 to 24, also at Rho Fiera Milano.

Simac is one of the key events for our company, since namely in 2020 ICOL itself, ICOL Italia (the Italian subsidiary) and the broad selection of our unique products were premiered to the world – with great success. The solutions on fully robotized footwear production and leather processing ICOL introduced more than a year ago are still unique.

ICOL will present in Milan the following solutions and business lines:

1. Fashion Ecosystem – the company’s own development, created to unite all participants of the fashion industry: from designers, technical specialists and components’ suppliers to manufacturers and retailers.
2. Digital B2B Platform – multipurpose digital platform, called to optimize trading and procurement activities of various industrial entities, goods lifecycle management, efficiency of business and marketing processes.
3. Smart Footwear Factory – a new scenario for manufacturing of the future, where each production stage is set as the autonomous robotized area, while interaction of area is fully optimized and automated.
4. Smart Cutting Center – a robotized center with the following processing stations: defect detection and application of transportation films, marking, printing, laser stamping, edge skiving, reinforcing, cutting and picking.

The pilot project of Smart Cutting Center was successfully launched at Belwest, a Belarus major footwear manufacturer. Six months of operations resulted in 24% lower costs, with assortment doubled. From the very first month of operations, growth of production volume indicated a 15-20% increase.

ICOL Group is currently in the process of creating two own cutting centers for yet better provision of services:

–        ICOL BY Cutting Center (Minsk, Belarus) – at the deployment stage. Start of commercial operations is set for early 2022.

–        ICOL ESP Cutting Center (Barcelona, Spain) – at the construction stage. Start of commercial operations is set for late 2022.

–        Similar project for Italy is at its planning stage.

ICOL is interested in strategic partners and major clients to develop the provision of services of its cutting business. Representatives of the company are ready to discuss the special cooperation conditions.

5. ICOL MES System – The intellectual core of manufacturing management, solving the tasks of production output’s synchronization, analysis and optimization. MES of Smart Factory is capable of independent (with no human involvement) decision making – yet providing the most complete information on the current state of a robotized production line, all its components and aspects; allowing, if necessary, an operator to interrupt, to correct and to renew the production.
   Having high flexibility and instant reaction to changes, MES allows the most efficient operation of equipment, lowering the expenses and increasing labor productivity.

6. VQI (Visual Quality Inspection) – part of ICOL.SmartFactory solution, designed to automatically analyze surface of leather hides, product components and ready shoes and accessories; to detect, localize and classify defects and anomalies; to optimize layouts for cutting, to perform other related operations.
7. Smart Warehouse – full robotization of operations, from arrival at a warehouse and operational storage to sorting and shipping, due to use of the independently developed FRLS (Full Robotics Logistic Space) system of logistic operations management.
8. Digital Solutions – other solutions and services from ICOL, based on Industry 4.0 guidelines: Advanced Machine Vision, Deep Learning/AI, Digital Twin, AMR – autonomous mobile robots and Industrial IoT.